Posts by Oneman2Many

Virgin Galactic sends oldest-ever Brit and first mother-daughter duo into space-ish

Branson made most of his money of VG when sold off $1.4bn of shares just before their value tanked after that f**ked up first flight. I don't think he actually owned much of VG these days.

UK government hands CityFibre £318M for rural broadband builds

Re: Keep some of the money back for 'repairs'.

While everyone is having a go at City Fibre's contractors they are most likely the same people that do OR and VM installs.

Intelsat and SES merger to create $10B satellite giant is off

With SpaceX valued at around $150bn and Starlink making up half of that value should be interesting if Starlink is spun off this year as Musk has implied.

US watchdog grounds SpaceX Starship after that explosion

Re: Most powerful

3 engines shutdown before takeoff leaving 30 engines running at 90% power. With each engine rated at approx 230 Tons that give about 60MN. So yes, the most powerful rocket to take off.

Weird Flex, but OK: Now you can officially turn these PCs, Macs into Chromebooks

Re: arrggh

A few years ago but I converted about 50 Asus netbooks for local primary school to ChromeOS. The WiFi cards didn't work but I found compatible ones for a couple of quid each on fleabay. AFAIK they are still using a few of them today. Flex probably is a lot easier to install than the workarounds I had to use back then.

SpaceX's second attempt at orbital Starship launch ends in fireball

Re: Complexity ≠ Reliability

Yeah, its not clamp at launch time, relies on gravity. Engines start at 50% which is not enough lift off and then throttle up.

STS used explosive bolts and they had multiple instances of the bolds not cleanly separating correctly but fortunately not enough of an issue to stop the launch though once the SRB were lit there was no turning them off.

Re: Why all the cheering before the 10 second countdown?

The Van actually is actually owned by BocaChicaGirl (Mary) but is used by NSF. They have a video of them returning to the van. Its a right off and I'm pretty sure its not covered by insurance, lol. To be honest its a pretty old Dodge minivan and wasn't worth much.

Re: restart supplies

Yeah, they use an electric based system. Probably sensible if a return trip to Mars is going to need multiple restarts.

Re: orbital velocity

It barely went supersonic

Re: Why all the cheering before the 10 second countdown?

There were at least a dozen streams to choose from. NSF Is usually pretty good as is Tim Dodd though he does get excited including shouting "I'm going up in that* shortly before RUD.

Re: restart supplies

You should probably watch Tim Dodds video on how to start a rocket engine.

SpaceX calendar marked with big red circle for 'first Starship launch' this month

Re: I can't wait.

Sadly no hover flip for starship. Its a 'controlled' re-entry and then belly flop into the pacific.

OneWeb lofts last batch of satellites to enable global internet service

I believe Oneweb are getting their kidnapped sats back in exchange for Roscosmos getting some ground equipment back from Kourou which they had to leave in a hurry.

The Moon or bust, says NASA, after successful SLS/Orion test flight

Re: Breaking things

Yes the mobile launch tower has elevators.

Rocket labs have given up on the idea of mid air catch. They are going to recover after splash down, same as shuttle boosters and Falcon fairings.

SpaceX threatened with $175,000 fine for Starlink crash risk paperwork blunder

SN9 exploded in the air ?

No it didn't, it exploded when it impacted with the ground.

SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket launches after three-year hiatus with secret US sats

Re: I don’t agree, but….

Even if there are enough missions and money, Boeing and the cartel can barely meet 1 launch a year cadence.

I'll bite though I probably shouldn't.

SLS Block 1 has a 95T LEO capability. FH is around 63T.

Europa Clipper which was due to launch on SLS but has been switched to FH is probably a good use case for comparison. There were 3 factors which were cited,

- FH has enough performance to avoid gravity assist from Venus, something that Delta Heavy would need and the reason why DH couldn't be used.

- There is no capacity from Boeing for supplying the launch capability for a 2025 (at the latest) launch. All SLS capacity is allocated to Airtimes program. FH will take an additional year to get there which means it needs to launch in 2023 (it could launch in 2024 but call it 2023 to allow a performance buffer) but that is something that SpaceX can support.

- There is a potential vibration issue caused by the SRB. Boeing is stating one value but NASA's own wind tunnel testing is coming up with a different value. NASA has other SRB data from the shuttle era which supports their worries as well but didn't factor that into this report. Without actual launch data its impossible to discount the issue.

ARS Tech which is pretty reputable site has a good article on the switch. According to the article a fully expended FH launch is costing around $178m and there is a white house comment that SLS launch is $2bn excluding development in one of the linked articles. I was being pretty generous saying its 'only' a billion as that is what is in wiki.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/07/spacex-to-launch-the-europa-clipper-mission-for-a-bargain-price/

https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/11/the-white-house-puts-a-price-on-the-sls-rocket-and-its-a-lot/

Don't get me wrong here, I think SLS is the best option for Artemis. Its a direct flight, no messing about transferring crew, no in-flight refuelling, most proven technology and a bunch of other reasons. But as a general non-crew launch vehicle its a bit of a non-starter.

The SLS Wiki article SLS is over $1bn per launch, that is excluding all the development and maintenance costs. Falcon heavy fully expended is $150m for 2/3 of the LEO payload capacity. Of course there are missions that can't be done by FH due to fairing size limitations, lack of vertical integration and other capacity limitations.

Starlink, shot by both sides in Ukrainian fracas, lives to fight on

Didn't mention the option that the backend systems are being hacked. Seeing as starlink knows where the terminals are it would be possible to selectively disable them selectively. In the list of possibility far more likely than Elon telling starlink to block Ukraine.

SpaceX reportedly fed up with providing free Starlink to Ukraine

Nobody is saying they invented the tech, just like Apple they created the market. Tesla ran at a huge loss, much like SpaceX, almost went bust more than once and most people would have given up.

Peering really isn't free or even cheap.

I have seen the data but I get the feeling they are only using a few ground stations which probably isn't helping. I haven't seen too many complaints about speed, seems to be jamming seems to be the main issue

Anyway, looks like he will continue to fund the donations for the time being.

NASA delays SLS rollback due to concerns over rocky path to launchpad

Scavenging pad 39A

Reached the stage where they are taking rock from the unused pad 39A for SLS on pad 39B. SpaceX who use pad 39A have stuck a building on the crawler way so won't be needing it.

Hawaiian Airlines to offer free Wi-Fi via SpaceX's Starlink

Re: Believe it when I see it

Forgot add, one hiccup is they will need approval for each type of aircraft, could be time consuming.

Re: Believe it when I see it

They have been testing with Delta and I believe USAF. They have also been testing with F9 missions so I would think technically they are confident.

At the they don't have laser link work AFAIK so the plane has to be within 500 miles of a ground station which I thought might be an issue for trans Pacific flight ? Maybe sats in a higher orbit have a larger radius of coverage.

SpaceX launches first totally private mission to the International Space Station

Re: dependencies

I believe the figure is around $10m but don't know if that is split between NASA and the other agencies. There is a breakdown somewhere, meal costs are $2k per day. Life support and toilet are around 20k per day (seems cheap). AFAIK, I don't believe Axiom have taken any supplies up with them.

https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/26/22250327/space-tourists-axiom-private-crew-iss-price

Nuclear fusion firm Pulsar fires up a UK-built hybrid rocket engine

Re: SpinLaunch

Scott Manley has a video as to why SpinLaunch is extremely difficult both as a concept and for the payload. https://youtu.be/JAczd3mt3X0

Everything but the catch: '90s pop act or a successful mission for Rocket Lab?

Re: Raises hand from back of room

Already tested

https://youtu.be/HOnNYWu6onU

Empty stage 1 weight is less that a ton.

VMware to kill SD cards and USB drives as vSphere boot options

It's relative to the lifespan of the system. 10 years should be enough.

The common factor in all your failed job applications: Your CV

Re: Tech CVs might not be understood

Because the company has a global policy regardless of the position. Personally unless its something outstanding of academic research then 5 years of actual work experience > degree.

10.8 million UK homes now have access to gigabit-capable broadband, with much of the legwork done by Virgin Media

Re: Gigabit...

Outside of IT community, 99.9999999999% of people don't even know their upload speed, for most ISP they don't even bother advertising it. As long as they can do a few zoom sessions and upload their social media pics they are happy.

Fast upload isn't a money maker, people aren't making their ISP selection on it.

Huawei's first desktop PC to be sold outside China is a sleek business machine with optional 'smart' keyboard

Target market is corporate desktops, no need for discreet gpu. Price wise it will need to undercut Dell, HP, etc to make a dent on target market.

Virgin Media adds 200% to its new broadband contracts in 2020, slips back in black (just)

Re: some in, some out

Why on earth are you paying £45 a month for 100mb ? I would be on the phone to retentions immediately. And as somebody else mentioned sounds like you are mixing bits and bytes. And starlink isn't designed for the masses and it's £90 a month for technology in the middle of being tested.

SpaceX’s Starlink finally reveals its satellite broadband pricing for rural America: At $99 a month, it’s a good deal

Expect the UK government to drag their heels thanks to their ludicrous "investment' in starlink rival oneweb.

You're stuck inside, gaming's getting you through, and you've $1,500 to burn. Check out Nvidia's latest GPUs

I'm sure I read they are supporting tensor memory compression offering up to 40% memory gain. So that 10GB is more like 14GB.

Beware, space Chuck Norris inside: Wacky flight rules for Chris Cassidy's first mission unearthed as Navy SEAL greets Dragon crew

How long before Rocket Lab try a first stage recovery ?

NASA's Human Spaceflight boss hits eject a week before SpaceX crew launch

Re: On the negative throught

I doubt it, his reasoning for leaving is causing too many questions. If it was being caught with his pants down then the usual reason for leaving is to spend time with the family.

My guess is whistle blowing.

Expect him to pop up with one of the private agencies in the next couple of weeks.

'Non-commercial use only'? Oopsie. You can't get much more commercial than a huge digital billboard over Piccadilly

Re: Free for non-commercial use?

Each usage has saved probably at least £100 of call out charge. Yet people moan.

If you want free then use VNC or other free alternatives,

Consumer reviewer Which? finds CAN bus ports on Ford and VW, starts yelling 'Security! We have a problem...'

Thank the EU for stopping encryption of the CAN bus.

Also need access to the bus to begin with.

Don't worry, I am sure OTA updates will be fine.

Cisco rations VPNs for staff as strain of 100,000+ home workers hits its network

Re: Anxious to find out how Teams will work?

What, no Yammer or Slack ?

Re: Anxious to find out how Teams will work?

We already have Office365 for most of the employees along with OneDrive and private SharePoint. Teams is a flick of a switch to enable. Integration is fine with rest of MS productions, for most people its just another collaboration tool. Like most enterprises the issue is that different teams go ahead and implement their own tools based on prior or personal experience and that just leads to fragmentation. God knows how much of the company is using WhatsApp for communicating.

Re: Anxious to find out how Teams will work?

Depends on if your organisation has switched it on or not.

Pre crisis Cisco VPN user here with 100,000 users and of course WebEx. Couldn't move away from those fast enough. Normally, it would have needed a year to approve the alternative VPN we were testing, managed to get approval and rollout done in 5 days. MS teams should be switched on next week.

Internet samurai says he'll sell 14,700,000 IPv4 addresses worth $300m-plus, plow it all into Asia-Pacific connectivity

How many of those class A address holders actually use them for public exposed services ?

AMD takes a bite out of Intel's PC market share across Europe amid microprocessor shortages, rising Ryzen

That is the whole point, who is going to verify thousands of combinations ? So a shift on CPU is going to take time.

Will add that for enterprise customers, supplies are stockpiled for year or more if there is a change its going to take a while for that to filter through.

Intel insists Xeon vs Epyc benchmark fight was fair, amends speed test claims anyway

They probably wouldn't as these will be running very specific workloads with low chance of exposure to vulnerabilities. You won't be buying these for general purpose compute.

Remember the Uber self-driving car that killed a woman crossing the street? The AI had no clue about jaywalkers

For those of you wondering what is required to conduct a trial on UK public road read the government guidelines,

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/776511/code-of-practice-automated-vehicle-trialling.pdf

AFAIK there have no tests of ADS so far on UK roads.

Re: Where are the test results?

Not all tests cover all conditions and ultimately unless the car is driving in fully autonomous mode (level 4 or above) it is expected that there is human guiding it. How else is it supposed to learn ?

Re: naive trust

Drivers don't want the inconvenience of a secure system.

Re: Surely

It was dark, the sensors could see more than you. Just the car made some stupid decisions.